The present invention relates to skin conditioning toilet bars. Such bars contain certain mixtures of sorbitan esters combined with conventional soap compounds. These sorbitan ester materials are delivered to the skin via the toilet bar vehicle.
Cleansing of the human skin with surface active materials is a procedure which generally occurs with great frequency. Unfortunately, many of the surface active materials (including soap) used to cleanse skin tend to remove natural oils from the skin and therefore can produce undesirable skin dryness, roughness, irritation or scaliness. Similar such undesirable skin problems caused by weather, working conditions, exposure to chemicals and the like can also be aggravated by cleansing the skin with compositions containing surface active agents.
Accordingly, there have been many attempts to alleviate the harshness of skin cleansing products by incorporating a wide variety of mildness additives into such products. Thus, emollient oils and skin conditioners have long been added to skin products such as soap to improve skin feel both during and after washing. Generally, such skin conditioners are designed to minimize such undesirable skin problems as irritation, redness, dryness and looseness of the skin.
Materials which provide relief from some of these skin sensation problems do not, however, necessarily alleviate related problems such as skin roughness and scaliness. There is, accordingly, a continuing need for skin care products containing mildness additives which help reduce skin roughness and scaliness and which impart a desirable smooth, soft feel to skin treated therewith.
In accordance with the present invention, certain sorbitan ester mixtures have been incorporated into toilet bars as mildness additives. It is believed that sorbitan ester materials deposit onto skin from the toilet bars herein to provide a protective lipid film.
Sorbitan esters and related materials are known emulsifiers and suds control agents which have been utilized in cosmetic and soap formulations. For example, Ferrara et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,557,006; issued Jan. 19, 1971 discloses acidic soap bars which contain low levels of sorbitan monostearate in addition to specific skin conditioning agents. Griffin; U.S. Pat. No. 2,478,820; issued Aug. 9, 1949 discloses lanolin-containing cosmetic compositions which also contain certain sorbitan ester materials. Fortess et al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,676,152; issued Apr. 20, 1954 discloses aqueous soap solutions containing certain sorbitan ester materials as emulsifying agents. Starkman, U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,436, issued Jan. 2, 1973, discloses a variety of polyurethane-containing skin treating compositions; some of these compositions contain sorbitan esters as plasticizers. McDonald, U.S. Pat. No. 2,697,695, issued Dec. 21, 1954, discloses controlled-suds washing compositions containing soap and ethoxylated sorbitan esters. None of these references indicate that the sorbitan ester materials employed are in any way useful as skin conditioning agents.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide toilet bars which both cleanse and condition the skin during and after use.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of simultaneously cleaning and treating the skin with materials that reduce skin scaliness and impart a smooth, soft texture and feel to the skin so treated.
It has been surprisingly discovered that by incorporating certain sorbitan ester mixtures into conventional soap-containing toilet bars at certain concentrations, the above-described objectives can be realized and toilet bars provided which are unexpectedly superior to similar skin treating products of the prior art.